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Petrarchian (Italian) Sonnet =14 lines

  • 1 octave (8 lines)     Contains the problem/situation

 

 

  • 1 sestet (6 lines)      offers the solution 

 

 

  • Rhyme Scheme        abba abba cde cde    

                                  abba abba cdc cdc

                                  abba abba cde cdc

                                  abba abba cde cdc

                                  abba abba (variations)

 

Shakespearian (Elizabethan/English) Sonnet

 

  • 3 quatrains (4 lines each)      Contains the problem/ situation

 

 

  • 1 couplet (2 lines)                Offers the  solution 

 

 

  • Rhyme Sceme                    abab cdcd efef gg

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spenserian (modified Shakespearian) Sonnet

 

 

  • 3 Quatrains (4 lines each)  Contains the problem/Situation

 

 

  • 1 couplet (2 lines)            offers the solution

 

 

 

  • Rhyme Scheme                abab bcbc cdcd ee

 

 

A sonnet is fundamentally a dialectical construct which allows the poet to examine the nature and ramifications of two usually contrastive ideas,emotions, states of mind, beliefs, actions, events, images, etc., by juxtaposing the two against each other, and possibly resolving or just revealing the tensions created and operative between the two!

 

.O. K., so much for the fancy language. Basically, in a sonnet, you show two related but differing things to the reader in order to communicate something about them. Each of the three major types of sonnets accomplishes this in a somewhat different way. There are, of course, other types of sonnets,as well, but I'll stick for now to just the basic three (Italian, Spenserian, English).

© 2014 By Christian Miskell of Bowling Green State University

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